# Experiment: Which Smokes Faster a Cut or a Punch?



## MDSPHOTO (Sep 10, 2013)

Experiment: Which Smokes Faster a Cut or a Punch?

I posted this question a while back and thought at some point I would actually do an experiment to see if there was a difference in smoking time between cutting a cigar & punching one. While I am a notoriously slow smoker I wondered if the fact that I punch most of my cigars rather then cutting them impacted my smoke time. So with a 77 degree day I decided today was the day.

*Methodology:*

In order to be fair I needed two of the same cigar, with the same amount of rest so I selected 2 Corona Cigar 10th Anniversary Tres Capas which clock in at 5.25" x 60 each as shown below. At < $4.00 a stick these are a great cheap smoke, however I will admit that the larger 6.5 x 54 size had more rustic flavors than this smaller brother.

One stick received a medium punch cut and the other I lopped the top with my Xikar xi.





I set-up my Ipad with the timer function and proceeded to alternate puffs between the two sticks at exactly 30-second intervals. In order to insure I did not double puff one stick twice, every time I took a draw I set the cigar down and picked up the other one and held it until it was time to take a puff and then repeated the process.



In the pictures below the punch cut is always the cigar on the right side.

15 Minute Mark:



30 Minute Mark:



45 Minute Mark:



60 Minute Mark:



90 Minute Mark:



*Caveats:*

Certainly there are always short comings to any experiment, here are the caveats to the results of mine.

* While I used 2 identical cigars, the choice of barber poles creates its own inherent challenges since there are 3 different wrappers that can burn unevenly
* Rolling- The cigars may have been rolled by different rollers creating draw or burn issues
* Lighting- While I tried to light them exactly the same one stick may have gotten off to a better start than the other
* Draw- I tried to draw each cigar at the same volume each time, but it would be impossible to take the same draw over 1.5 hours
* Burn- Each cigar required one touch up, but one may have gotten more assistance than the other

*Results:*

As you can see after 1.5 hours the punched stick burned significantly faster than the cut stick. I thought the cut top would have burned faster, my hypothesis is that the punched stick had a little more positive pressure in the draw which actually could have increased the burn rate. As they say in medicine, there is evidence that a punched cigar burns faster, but more research will need to be done. However, don't look for me to try this again! I was pretty loopy after taking a drag on two cigars every 30 seconds for an hour and a half. If you have the time and identical sticks with identical rest, you may want to try it yourself.


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## Reggie (Oct 21, 2013)

Thanks for taking one for the team! I too would have thought the cut would burn faster. But the theory of the smaller opening - similar to a venturi in a carb - might explain why the punch went faster.

I'm curious if you detected any perceived differences in the flavors you got - since all the other variables were covered...


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## Senor_Perfecto (Apr 2, 2014)

Wow, really interesting!

THE SCIENCE!

BTW I am also a VERY slow smoker. Guy hands me a stick and tells me it's good for 30-40 min and I'm like, I'll see you in an hour and a half. I recently changed my smoking method and now I get a lot more flavor... and smoke even slower


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## MDSPHOTO (Sep 10, 2013)

Reggie said:


> Thanks for taking one for the team! I too would have thought the cut would burn faster. But the theory of the smaller opening - similar to a venturi in a carb - might explain why the punch went faster.
> 
> I'm curious if you detected any perceived differences in the flavors you got - since all the other variables were covered...


Reflecting back, early on I might have gotten some more grass & hay flavors from the punch, but to be honest after 180 puffs in 90 minutes I was more focused on just being done with the experiment!


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## USHOG (Dec 28, 2012)

Pretty neat experiment


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## Fuzzy (Jun 19, 2011)

Bernoulli's principle can be applied to various types of fluid flow, resulting in what is loosely denoted as Bernoulli's equation. 

Your experiment kind of proves the principle.


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## Tobias Lutz (Feb 18, 2013)

Interesting. In an actual race I would put my money on the dark horse (the tooth pulled pigtail cap) :biggrin: I generally punch and this might explain why people sometimes question how quickly I burn a stick, especially since I'm not a heavy puffer by any means.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Well i'll be a monkeys uncle. I figured the Cut one would have burned faster. Thanks for the experiment I might have to try it sometime.


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## beercritic (Feb 13, 2011)

I'd have figured the cut stick would burn faster. Will have township a few and see if I can get more time from my smokes.


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## Senor_Perfecto (Apr 2, 2014)

Fuzzy said:


> Bernoulli's principle can be applied to various types of fluid flow, resulting in what is loosely denoted as Bernoulli's equation.
> 
> Your experiment kind of proves the principle.


This would relate to the same volume of smoke being pulled through the cigar at each puff, but having to go faster to get through the smaller hole, thus heating the cherry more, thus making the punched cigar burn faster?


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## Fid (Apr 10, 2014)

That was a pretty interesting experiment. Maybe the advantage is that if you know you might be short on time, you can get through with a punched cigar quicker.


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## 455 Punch (Nov 24, 2013)

Excellent work. Ring gauge to ya for testing what others just would rather hypothesize about.


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## fiddlegrin (Feb 8, 2009)

Thank you David, what a great experiment! 

It is certainly understandable that loopiness occurred :nod:

Virtual r.g. since it won't let me hit ya again yet :beerchug:


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## fiddlegrin (Feb 8, 2009)

Senor_Perfecto said:


> This would relate to the same volume of smoke being pulled through the cigar at each puff, but having to go faster to get through the smaller hole, thus heating the cherry more, thus making the punched cigar burn faster?


Well the original theory is based on liquids, so it is of limited relevance here&#8230; but fun :thumb:

Bernoulli performed his experiments on liquids, so his equation in its original form is valid only for incompressible flow. A common form of Bernoulli's equation, valid at any arbitrary point along a streamline, is:

{v^2 \over 2}+gz+{p\over\rho}=\text{constant}

(A)
where:

v\, is the fluid flow speed at a point on a streamline,
g\, is the acceleration due to gravity,
z\, is the elevation of the point above a reference plane, with the positive z-direction pointing upward - so in the direction opposite to the gravitational acceleration,
p\, is the pressure at the chosen point, and
\rho\, is the density of the fluid at all points in the fluid.

:rockon:


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## demuths1770 (Jan 2, 2014)

very nice experiment. I always figured a cut would smoke faster myself! maybe a second experiment needs to be done with a different cigar lol. :smoke2:


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## 04EDGE40 (Jan 7, 2014)

If you were a REAL man you would've done four cigars: punch, cutter, v-cutter, and shuriken. :wink:


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## demuths1770 (Jan 2, 2014)

04EDGE40 said:


> If you were a REAL man you would've done four cigars: punch, cutter, v-cutter, and shuriken. :wink:


it you be interesting to know te difference between a v cut and puch too! i had to seach to see what a shuriken cut is bu that looks like a interesting cut


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## Emperor Zurg (May 6, 2013)

IMO, the results of this experiment mean nothing until you've averaged the results of at least 30 identical tests. So, since you've begun and obviously have all the proper equipment... start puffing!


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## penna stogey (Apr 23, 2014)

Very cool experiment, thanks, P-S


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## DrBob (Mar 26, 2014)

As someone who can take 3 hours to smoke a punched Toro, I am now afraid to use my guillotine  I may repeat this with a pair of coronas from the same order to see if I get similar results.


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